Struggle

I struggle lately to take my picture every day.

I love photography, it is my life, it is my release, it is how I express myself.

There are just some days when I just want to stop or take a break. I see other 365ers and their pictures are so inspirational. It seems I never go anywhere or do anything so my pictures are just stupid things around my house. Another 365er has taken pictures of things at his house and I am blown away and how amazing and simple he makes it look. Always perfect lighting, always perfectly clear. I struggle and some days I just want to purposely not take a picture but I know it would be a shame to come this far and just give up.

I guess I will just have to continue taking my blah pictures and if you want to stop looking I understand.

Chapel

Went to my brother's church today. The building was one of the old LDS churches they built a long time ago. They don't make the new ones as beautiful as this anymore.

In Pieces

A piece of my heart is on it's way to France right now and I want it back. A week doesn't seem long enough to get so attached but I did and there is a hole now that only he can fill :*(

Guess this calls for a trip to France in the future.

No Kisses

Sometimes you just don't want a kiss. I get it :)

His Name Is Jonas

This is Jonas, my new friend from France. I would keep him if I could. I'm already sad he leaves tomorrow.

He hates his smile and didn't want me to keep this photo, but I love it.

Someday

Someday you will be 16 and walk through the halls with confidence, intelligence and beauty.

You will get your heart broken and you will break hearts.

You will know who you are, what you stand for, and what you believe in.

You will laugh an toss your hair as you talk with your friends in between classes.

You will come home every day with stories to tell me and I will listen.

You will still be a daddy's girl.

But today, you are my little Lu, and I love you just the way you are having to reach up on your tippie toes just to reach the locker handle and I don't want it to ever change.

Happy Birthday Keslie

My niece turned 17 today and wanted to spend it with me (of course!) We went and had our nails done and then went to dinner. She's a little goofy, she gets it from me.


When I see a light on the ground, I think...scary picture!!

En français

Jonas speaks hardly any English so communicating with him has been quite challenging.

We use Google Translate to talk most of the time but his English has improved quite a bit in just a couple of days. I am learning French too so I can speak with him a little. I end up saying this a LOT...

Rock Band

Jonas is in a band back home. He plays the violin and is amazing at it. Of course we had to pull out Guitar Hero and Rock Band on our XBOX to play. He's never played it so it was fun.

Aquarium

Not exactly what you want to see when you are out for a swim :)

We have a foreign exchange student staying with us for a week. His name is Jonas and he is from France. Today was a free day so we took him all over Salt Lake. He is amazing. I'm already attached.

Auntie Cha Cha

Chalyn is my youngest brother's wife and she is so sweet and amazing. All the kids call her Auntie Cha Cha. She saw all my 365 pics from last year and said, "Why am I not in any of these?" So here you go Chalyn, you get to be in this year's batch :)

Lightbulb!!

I have been trying to figure out what to do with the 364 prints I made for my final picture last year. I am going to be making a book of them so I didn't want to put them in an album to never be looked at again.

Then, a lightbulb went off in my little brain and I had an idea! I bought this coffee table at Ikea a long time ago and never new what to do with it since it had a glass piece over the top. I thought of fabric but never found any I loved.

Then it hit me, why not put pictures under there! So that is just what I did and I love it.


I have got to buy another one for my studio now!!!

Artist

I was driving home and saw this guy on the side of the road painting the beautiful mountainside that everyone driving by every day just takes for granted. Everyone but me of course because I am an artist just like him except I use my camera instead of a paintbrush :)

: (

I am so sad. I actually pre-visualized a picture for today. I was going to go to Ikea and take a really cool picture of on of the many items they have and how there are hundreds of them. I was going to title it, "Ikea, I love thee. Let me count the ways."

I got my camera, went to Ikea found the first thing I thought might make a good picture and turned on my camera only to find the battery dead. Dang. I had to use my iphone instead and the picture sucks.

Laundry

I love it when I get paid to do the laundry!!

Clean

Who would have ever guessed that I of all people would have missed cleaning?

Finally feeling good again. Time to clean and it feels good!

Afro

Just another neglected thing since I've been out of commission. My son needs a haircut, badly.

Talk Like Baby Brody

No, I'm not better at all, but my little one is the first to show signs of being better. She has been up and about today and is acting like her normal self.

I did take a picture of the day, but I wanted to also post a video for today. It's a little long but it's so funny to watch. Lu was sitting on the couch with me and said, "Mommy, this is my Baby Brody Song." (Brody is her baby cousin)

I think she was enjoying her raspy voice because she was really rocking out! She has never made up a song like this before. She is always singing songs she already knows so I had to run and grab my camera so I could video the last of the song. In case you can't make out the words, they are
"Talk like Baby Brody
Talk Like Baby Brody
Ya got to-oooooooooooo"

Year Of Pain

So far, 2011 has been the year of pain for me.

I now have strep throat. If any of you have had the fortune of never getting it and want to know what Streptococcus feels like, drink this little cocktail I made and that is what it's like every time you swallow.

Looking For Relief

My throat is hurting so bad today. Maybe this will help.

Bubbles

My girls are still horribly sick. I can't remember them ever being so sick. It's been 3 days of a fever of over 102 degrees. The only thing that makes them happy is a bubble bath.

I'm also starting to get sick. Great.

Tissues

Tissues have become part of the decor of the house the last couple of days with both girls sick with colds.

I recently had a fellow 365er ask me, "How much time do you spend a day getting your shots?"

The answer is different and depends on if I plan ahead for my picture or just try to get something fast so it's done and over with.

Most days, are like today. I'm crazy busy, It's getting late, and I have to do something for my picture. I look around, see if something catches my eye (preferably something that has to do with my day), and grab my camera.

Today, I saw lots of boxes of tissues sitting around so I lined them up and took the picture how I first imagined it and got this:

Then I just turned my camera at an angle to get this:

Then, I looked at it from different angles, got in really close and got this:

Took me all of about 5 minutes and got 3 different looks of the same thing. Then I upload them, pick my fav, edit and post it. That's all I do.

Mommy, My Boice Is Gone

Both my little girls are sick :(

Snow

Driving home really late last night there was a beautiful snow storm. I love the look of falling snow around the street lights. Took this at 12:30 so it counts for today :)

Creme Brulee

Took my hubby to Fleming's Steak house for his birthday dinner.

They have the yummiest Creme Brulee I've ever had.

Outside Looking In

Wedding Rings

I never got pictures of my wedding ring when I got married. I've always thought about doing a ring shot of mine and my husband's rings.

We got married in December and my colors were white and silver with a wintry theme.

I wanted to incorporate all these things in my shot. I'm going to take down my Christmas tree soon now that my ankle is getting better so I knew this would be my only chance. The ornament in this picture is one of many we had as part of the centerpieces and use them every year on our tree.

There is a story behind my diamond. Ryan asked what cut I wanted. I love the square shape of the princess cut diamond, but I love the straight lines of the emerald cut. The only thing I could think of was for him to get a square emerald cut. He surprised me and did better.

He did some research and found an "Asscher Cut" which was created specifically for the the Royalty of Europe and the crown jewels. It's sort of rare since you can't find it just anywhere. Ryan had to get mine in New York. It may be more common now, but over 8 years ago when he purposed, not many people knew about it. Ryan was so sweet though and knew he had to find the perfect one for me. It was better than I hoped.

Easiest Way to Make A Butt

My six year old came home from school and exclaimed,

"Hey mom! Wanna know the easiest way to make a butt? You just take your arm and bend your elbow and it makes a butt. That's funny huh?"

Oh the innocence of youth.

I wanted to say, "Wish it had been that easy to make your butt." I decided I didn't want to get into that topic though so I dropped it.

Mommy, Take a pisher!

I have been good the last two days and have stayed off my feet in hopes my ankle will get better.

I was sitting on the couch reading when my 3 hear old says, "Mommy, take a pisher (picture)." She was upside down on the couch with her feet in the air. At first I couldn't believe my ears. She HATES having her pisher, I mean picture taken and has never said that.

I jumped up, grabbed my camera, and followed her around the house as she thought of cute things for me to take pictures of around the house. She even took the camera from me and took some of me which was hilarious since my camera is way too heavy for her! Here are my favs, all her idea.

Banana Bread - Y.U.M,

What is wrong with me?? I can't take a good picture this year no matter how I try.

I just baked banana bread, took it out of the oven and sliced it so I could get the steam rising above it. I thought I accomplished this until I see it big on my computer and the steam just blends in with the background noise going on. At least I took a picture.

Starting With a Bang

I had every intention of starting off this year with a BANG.

I even planned this picture for my first picture of the year yesterday but I overdid it and had to get back on the couch with my ankle burning with pain.

I had this picture in my head of this popper in my daughter's little hands, with the confetti exploding out of it.

It didn't turn out like I planned. Not much this year has so far. Like this first picture I took - I was so excited for the new year just like my girls were so excited to pull the string on their popper.

Then I took picture after picture and never could get the image I wanted. I got a few sparks,

but in the end every shot was just a dud with a bunch of smoke.

So symbolic of my year so far and it's only 2 days in. I'm usually not so negative but today I'm just feeling it may be a New Year, but it's all just the same ol' crap.

730 day Challenge - "Boo-Lah!"

When I was a child we would have Fondue every New Year's day and would have Martinelli's sparkling apple cider in wine glasses. My brothers and I started saying "Boo-Lah!" to each other when we would toast. Don't know where we got it but it stuck and to this day nothing has changed.

We still have Fondue on New Year's day, we still drink Martinelli's, and we still say "Boo-Lah!"

Confessions of a 365-er

I wanted to do a review of my year before I started with the new one. Pick out some of my favorites, make a few confessions. I started this challenge with so many people that ended up not finishing for one reason or another. So far I am the only one who has finished.

Now for my confessions.
First, I missed two days. The first was on June 21st. It was when I was refinishing my kitchen cabinets. All day I thought of what my picture could be as I painted. I kept painting until way after midnight and sure enough, realized once it was too late that I had forgotten to take my picture. I was so sad I cried. I had come so far and because of something so stupid I messed up. At first I felt defeated like I had to give up. Then I realized I couldn't let this stop me so I took the picture I was going to take that day the next day instead and just posted it for that day. Here it is...


The second day I missed was July 8th. It was the day I fell down my stairs and was on the couch in pain all day so I completely forgot. I didn't even realize I missed it until several days later when I went to do my blog posts and there was no picture for that day. I remembered it was the day I fell so I took this to remember it...


My next confession - sometimes I didn't like how my picture of the day would turn out so I redid it the next day to make it better. I only did it a few times but I admit, I did it!

Most of the time I also didn't post the picture the same day I took the picture. Sometimes I would wait days or even a couple weeks to post them all. If I had to post them every day I don't think I would have made it past the first week!!

So there you have it, all my confessions of my 365 challenge. Some of you may think less of my accomplishment now since I really missed a couple days but I don't. I still did it. I set my goal and I accomplished it. No technicality can take that away from me.

Here are some of my favs from the year:
















































and finally...